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Ola Sigurdson
Professor
Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and ReligionAbout Ola Sigurdson
Research and Teaching
My research interests are found in the intersection between traditional systematic theology and Continental theory. Thus, I have reflected on the question of embodiment in theological tradition with the help of phenomenology in the monograph Heavenly Bodies (2006; eng. trans. 2016), on the relationship between humour, subjectivity and transcendence with the help of philosophical anthropology, psychoanalysis, and theology in the three-volume work Divine Comedies (2021), and on spatiality in Atmospheres: An Introduction. Further, I have inquired about the relation between religion and politics in The Happy Philosophy (2000), The Post-secular Condition (2009) and Theology and Marxism in Eagleton and Žižek: A Conspiracy of Hope (2012). All in all, I have published more than twenty monographs and anthologies in Swedish and English and more than a hundred articles.
My current research project concerns different aspects of spatiality in dialogue with architecture, phenomenology, and theology. The plan is to write five monographs on the following topics: atmospheres, thresholds, places, cities, and numinous spaces. I have also recently completed a research project on the relation between humour, subjectivity, and transcendence, published in a number of articles in Swedish and English but above all in the above mentioned three-volume work Divine Comedies (2021; currently in Swedish only). In addition to this, my Swedish translations of two books by the German philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher: On Religion (the first edition from 1799) and Christmas Eve Celebration (the second edition from 1826) will be published in 2023.
I have repeatedly had the opportunity of spending time as guest researcher or guest professor in various academic venues. Spring term 2000 I spent at SCASS, Uppsala University, and the academic year 2001-2002 at Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies (CARTS), Faculty of Divinity and Wolfson College, both at Cambridge University, UK. During the year 2010–2011 I visited Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, as a fellow. I have also made shorter visits as a guest researcher in Nagoya, Japan (2015), Stellenbosch, South Africa (2015), Oxford, UK (2017, 2018), and as a guest professor at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hong Kong, China, 2019 and (virtually) 2021.
Between July 1 2011 and June 20 2017, I was director of the Centre for Culture and Health at the University of Gothenburg, an initiative from the university to bring together and create a multi-disciplinary research centre. Since January 1 2017 I am the chairperson of the steering committee for Jonsered Manor, a meeting point for intimate discussion on urgent societal questions by scholars and society.
I have supervised five doctoral students to their exam and another four as their co-supervisor.
Other Activities and Duties
Beyond my employment as a researcher and teacher at the University of Gothenburg, I am active as a guest lecturer, external examiner, and expert at different universities and conferences in Sweden, Europe, USA, Asia, and Africa. I am also employed as a guest lecturer in different public contexts and have been a regular contributor to the Göteborg Book Fair, where I have taken part in seminars, panels and interviews. Since December 2009 I have been a member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, and since 2022 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.
Furthermore, I have had some academic assignments of a more administrative kind. Between 2006 and 2009 and then again between 2011 and 2015 I was a member of the Faculty board. In 2015–2016 I served at the board for appointing teachers at the faculty, and late 2016 I also served as a vice-dean for research and research students. I was a member of the Research Council for the Church of Sweden between 2003 and 2006 and between 2006 and 2008 a member of the board for educational sciences at the Swedish Research Council. I am a member of the scientific advisory board at Skaraborgsinstitutet since 2006 and a member of the board for the journal Ord & Bild since 2012.
Education and Teaching
I was born in Dalstorp, Sweden, in 1966 and grew up in Ulricehamn. After studies at a high school for engineering in Borås I moved to Gothenburg in 1985 to do a BA in philosophy, comparative literature and economics. Next stop was at a theological seminary in Örebro where I had my basic theological training. In 1991 I began my doctoral program in systematic theology at Lund University where I defended my thesis Karl Barth as the Other: A Study of the Barth-reception of Swedish Theology in the autumn of 1996. Two years later I became “docent” in systematic theology at the same university.
After I had finished my doctoral program I worked half time as a lecturer in systematic theology at the Stockholm School of Theology and half time in a research project at the Department of theology in Lund, run by professor Göran Bexell. In December 1999 I was appointed as a “pro futura”-scholar to the memory of Torgny Segerstedt by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation in cooperation with Uppsala University. My position as a lecturer in systematic theology here in Gothenburg started on January 1 2003 and on July 1 2008, I was promoted to a full professorship in systematic theology.
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En båge genom tiden - ritualer kring en göteborgshistoria. Om Flickläroverket i
Artisten
Monica Sand, Ola Sigurdson, Gun Lund, Mats Nilsson, Ulla Eckersjö, Louisa Palmi, Emanuel Cederqvist, Ami Skånberg, Julya Hedblom, Emma Johanssen, Angelica Karlsson, Frida Karlsson, Melina Bigale, Anna Wennerbeck, Anders Hagberg, Astrid von Rosen, Gunilla Bandolin, Bengt Isling, Barbara Ekström, Hampus Pettersson, Gertrud Olsson, Claes Caldenby, Ewamarie Herklint
2024 -
Antikens fiendebilder kastar skuggor över vår samtid. Recension av Paul Linjamaa, Bakom kulisserna i Edens
lustgård
Ola Sigurdson
Respons: Tidskrift för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap - 2024 -
Atmospheres in Everyday Life: On Existential
Spatiality
Ola Sigurdson
2024 -
Inledning till den svenska
nyutgåvan
Ola Sigurdson
Mircea Eliade: Heligt och profant: Om det religiösas väsen / Ola Sigurdson, Mircea Eliade, Alf Ahlberg. - 2024 -
Porten, korridoren, templet: Om rum i
staden
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora och arkitektur - 2024 -
Monoteism och minne – Jan Assmann in
memoriam
Ola Sigurdson
Signum: Katolsk orientering om kyrka, kultur & samhälle - 2024 -
Flickläroverket: En
passage
Ola Sigurdson
En båge genom tiden: Ritualer kring en Göteborgshistoria: Om Flickläroverket i Artisten. Monica Sand (red.). - 2024 -
Tobias Andersson. Kommentar till Sanusi: En systematisk studie i islamisk teologi. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet.
2022.
Ola Sigurdson
Svensk teologisk kvartalskrift - 2023 -
"Nygren,
Anders".
Ola Sigurdson
Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception: Vol. 21: Negative Theology – Offspring. Edited by Constance M. Furey, Joel Marcus LeMon, Thomas Chr. Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish and Eric Ziolkowski. - 2023 -
Åskådning och känsla: Friedrich Schleiermachers Om
religionen
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora och arkitektur - 2023 -
Inledning till den svenska
nyutgåvan
Ola Sigurdson
Mircea Eliade: Myten orden eviga återkomsten: Arketyper och upprepning - 2023 -
Karl Barth’s Performative Theology: Context and Rhetoric in Der Römerbrief
1922
Ola Sigurdson
Crisis and Reorientation Karl Barth’s Römerbrief in the Cultural and Intellectual Context of Post WWI Europe. Christine Svinth-Værge and Põder Sigurd Baark (eds.). - 2023 -
Envy: The Coldest of the Deadly
Sins
Ola Sigurdson
2023 -
"Vem tillhör vårt liv?
Efterord"
Ola Sigurdson
Ferdinand von Schirach, Gud: En teaterpjäs. Översättning: Martin Törnebohm. - 2023 -
Numinous Edifices: Aesthetic Experiences of the
Sacred
Ola Sigurdson
Svensk teologisk kvartalskrift - 2023 -
Avund: Den kallaste av
dödssynder
Ola Sigurdson
2023 -
Atmosfärer: En
introduktion
Ola Sigurdson
2023 -
Who writes the script of my
life?
Ola Sigurdson
Journal of Systematic Theology - 2023 -
Människan och inkarnationen: Friedrich Schleiermachers
Julfirandet
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora och arkitektur - 2023 -
Religionens roll I samhället: 18 teser om religion och
sekularisering
Ola Sigurdson
Teologi för en postkristen tid. Red. Mårten Björk, Peter Karlsson och Anna Sjöberg - 2022 -
Kvickhet, kristendom och kritik: En introduktion till Terry
Eagleton
Ola Sigurdson
Röda Rummet: Socialistisk teoretisk tidskrift - 2022 -
The Doxic Status of Atmospheres: Mats Rosengren’s Doxology and New
Phenomenology
Ola Sigurdson
Shadows in the Cave. Revisiting Mats Rosengren’s Doxology. Erik Bengtson, Karl Ekeman, Mirey Gorgis, Louise Schou Therkildsen & Alexander Stagnell (eds.). - 2022 -
Arkitektur som tredje hud: Om rum, kropp och
atmosfär
Ola Sigurdson
Rhetorica Scandinavica - 2022 -
"Natten döljer en svart regnbåge": Folke Dahlberg och melankolins
atmosfär
Ola Sigurdson
Genom dröm och verklighet: Folke Dahlbergs surrealistiska bilder - 2022 -
Humor och teologi – några
reflektioner
Ola Sigurdson
Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien Årsbok 2022 - 2022 -
Casa mia: Hemmets filosofi på
italienska
Ola Sigurdson
Dixikon - 2022 -
Vad är teologi? Teologisk bildning i akademi, kyrka och
samhälle
Ola Sigurdson
2022 -
Filosofen som vill befria vinet från dess
flaska
Ola Sigurdson
Svenska Dagbladet - 2022 -
"Vad som varit dolt sedan världens skapelse": Teologiska dimensioner i Fredrik Söderbergs
konst
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora, konst och arkitektur - 2022 -
Marilynne Robinson and
theology
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Effort and Grace: On the Spiritual Exercise of Philosophy by Simone Kotva (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), xiv + 230
pp.
Ola Sigurdson
Modern Theology - 2021 -
En "Buddenbrook" för autofiktionens
2000-tal
Ola Sigurdson
Svenska Dagbladet - 2021 -
3
Ola Sigurdson
Glänta - 2021 -
Musik, atmosfär och affektivitet: Om musiken, rummet och mötet med
Gud
Ola Sigurdson
Barmhärtighetens gemenskap: Festskrift för Roland Spjuth. Red. Carl-Magnus Carlstein, Maria Ledstam, Bengt Rasmusson och Fredrik Wenell. - 2021 -
The Church as Plesion: On Arne Rasmusson as a
Neighbour
Ola Sigurdson
Vänskap/Friendship: Festschrift för Arne Rasmusson. Ed. Ola Sigurdson and Jayne Svenungsson. - 2021 -
Vänskap/Friendship: Festschrift för Arne
Rasmusson
Ola Sigurdson, Jayne Svenungsson
2021 -
Grace and subjectivity in Marilynne Robinson's
Lila
Ola Sigurdson
Marilynne Robinson and theology, ed. Håkan Möller and Ola Sigurdson - 2021 -
Därför längtar vi tillbaka till
publikhavet
Ola Sigurdson
Svenska Dagbladet - 2021 -
Efterord
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora, konst och arkitektur - 2021 -
Vardagslivets psykoteologi: Om subjektivitet och
transcendens
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora, konst och arkitektur - 2021 -
Gudomliga komedier: Humor, subjektivitet, transcendens. Volym 1: Antiken till
renässansen
Ola Sigurdson
2021 -
Gudomliga komedier: Humor, subjektivitet, transcendens. Volym 2: Tysk
romantik
Ola Sigurdson
2021 -
Gudomliga komedier: Humor, subjektivitet, transcendens. Volym 3: Kritik av den existentiella
humorn
Ola Sigurdson
2021 -
Theology in the Middle of Things: Existential Preconditions of Systematic
Theology
Ola Sigurdson
International Journal of Systematic Theology - 2020 -
A Hermeneutic of Hope: Problematizing Žižek's
Apocalypticism
Ola Sigurdson
Žižek Studies: The Greatest Hits (So Far). David J. Gunkel and Paul A. Taylor (red.) - 2020 -
Tradition och bildning mellan reaktion och
revolution
Ola Sigurdson
Tradition, rättvisa och döden: Essäer om det begripliga. Normunds Kamergrauzis (red.). - 2020 -
Sekularisering, avförtrollning och
omförtrollning
Ola Sigurdson
Dixikon - 2020 -
I händelsernas mitt: Om relationen mellan filosofi och
teologi
Ola Sigurdson
Arche: Tidskrift för psykoanalys, humaniora och arkitektur - 2020 -
När är det roligt? Om humor, teologi och
existens
Ola Sigurdson
Kirke og kultur - 2019 -
Lyckoteknik, tro och kritik: En psykoteologisk kommentar till Robert Pfallers
interpassivitetsbegrepp
Ola Sigurdson
Den förnekade kunskapen: En introduktion till Robert Pfallers filosofi / Sverker Lundin och Tobias Wessely (red.) - 2019
More publications
We have limited the number of publications on this page. Visit GUP (The Publication Database for Gothenburg University) to find more publications.